Thursday, April 17, 2014

Class Summary 4-17-2014

We never got onto the planned topic, so that will be what we start off with in May. However we covered a lot of material today.

Started with installing someone's printer while the class watched. Got to talk about sharing printers to be able to print from your wireless laptop. Also about the newer laptops not having a VGA out to connect a projector or second monitor. Have to use a HDMI to VGA adaptor to make that happen. Most newer laptops have an HDMI port which enables you to connect your laptop to your TV and watch whatever is on your laptop screen on the TV. Need a M-M HDMI cable.

Spent time again discussing the maintenance programs I use to keep my PC clean. Suggest all attend Ron's Maintenance class he runs twice a month. There is much on this blog about using those programs and how to get them from ninite.com.

Questions about XP not being supported. Best suggestion is to retire your XP machine and move everything over to your new one, probably Windows 8.1. I strongly suggest installing the third party program to give you your Windows 7 like GUI back--start menu, etc. Get it from classicshell.net. Demoed installing it as well.

If you do not use your XP machine on the internet, you can still keep using it. All your software will continue to work as it has. If you want to move your XP software to a new machine the only program I know of that can make that happen is PCmover. You can get it locally at Staples.

Showed how to locate this blog and the links on it like classnotes and useful links.

I know we covered a lot of other topics. If you can think of them, let me know and I will add something.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

The Heartbleed Bug

This was mentioned in class today and one of our classmates, George Buono has passed this on to us.

Following is a link to check sites impacted by the Heartbeat bug.  This may be one of if not the greatest security breaches.  Please check the referenced sites – if they recommend you change passwords to THAT site do so without delay.

Just now I received the CNET page monitoring the problem and it has more sites listed but less info check both references’

CNET site: http://www.cnet.com/how-to/which-sites-have-patched-the-heartbleed-bug/?tag=nl.e404&s_cid=e404&ttag=e404&ftag=CAD1acfa04

I checked that site and changed my passwords for Yahoo, Google, and Facebook.

You might want to do the same.

Class Summary 4-10-2014

Today was a real popori of topics. We started going over the most recent posts on this blog. Then it was opened up for questions and we chatted about everything from emails to backup to ninite to cloud storage and more.

We showed how to make the page in the browser larger and smaller using the shortcut keys:
Ctrl + to increase the size and Ctrl - to decrease the size. Ctrl 0 will bring back the normal size.

A couple of things come to mind. One was how I print mailing labels on my computer. First, I use an Excel spreadsheet to maintain my names and addresses. Must have the first row containing headings for the columns such as Name, Address, City, State, Zip. Then I use Word's MailMerge feature to merge the names and addresses into a label template.

We have touched on MailMerge in previous classes such as http://www.rwevans.com/cccgc/WordStuffII10-17-2013.pdf and the 10-17-2013 notes at http://rwevans.com/cccgc/2013.htm. There is a YouTube video on the subject as well.

Then we talked about getting an Office Suite without having to purchase it from Microsoft. On Microsoft option is to use their free online Office Suite at www.live.com:



Your documents are stored in the cloud an can also be saved locally.

Another approach is to use Google Drive and Google Docs. It is free and documents are stored the cloud and can be exported to your local disk in a number of different formats.

A local approach, software is installed on your computer and all documents are stored locally, is to use OpenOffice or LibreOffice. This is a nice replacement to the Microsoft Office Suite and will handle all your office application needs.

And we talked about using Locknote for storing passwords. Find some notes on this and on LibreOffice on the class notes at http://rwevans.com/cccgc/ClassNotes2-6-2014.pdf and a direct link to download the program.


Those annoying notifications for games in Facebook




Apologies to Felice for showing everyone the game she is currently playing.

 We all get them and think our “friends” are sending them to us. They are not. The game sends them because when you sign up for an app or game you give them permission to access your list of friends.



If you mouse over the right side of that notification an X pops up



Click the X to turn off all future notifications from that game 



Then confirm your choice by clicking the Turn off button

 Done. You will never see a notification for that game again, from anyone.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Should I turn my computer off at night?

This is a question asked often. My answer is always yes. I turn mine off. A clean reboot once a day is always a good idea as well as some maintenance. FPL has a great answer from a power saving point of view in their blog. Read what they have to say by clicking here.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Got Something To Sell?

Came across this that allows you to build a Facebook storefront and sell items online. Check it out at:
http://www.shopify.com/